Thursday, November 30, 2017

Violence remained at a minimal level in Iraq for another
week. The government forces were sweeping through western Anbar, but the
Islamic State was not putting up a fight. That was true in most of the country
as well. Several mass graves were discovered raising the casualty figures.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

In December 2011, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki travelled
to Washington D.C. for a meeting with President Barak Obama. The State
Department was hoping this would be a great symbolic get together of Iraq and
the United States. Unfortunately, Maliki was not in the mood, and complained
about his fears of Sunni states and Baathists and what the Americans were doing
about them. This was just one of many mishaps between the two governments.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Talks between the federal and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have
deadlocked over the last few weeks. After Baghdad moved its forces into Kirkuk
and other disputed territories in October 2017, which led to several gun battles,
the two sides moved onto negotiations mediated by the United States. No
progress has been made however due to a number of issues with no breakthrough
appearing on the horizon.

Monday, November 27, 2017

During the spring of
2017 the Hashd al-Shaabi reached the Iraq-Syrian border. Immediately, many of
the pro-Iranian factions of the Hashd talked about crossing over to help the
Assad government as many already had units doing so on the Syrian side. At the
same time, they denied that they would enter the neighboring country without
the authorization of the Iraqi government, but some did.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Now that the
conventional war against the Islamic State is coming to an end the government
has to deal with reconstruction. Estimates for rebuilding Anbar, Ninewa and Diyala stand at $60 billion. Half of
that is just for Mosul with 70% of the west side destroyed.
In Anbar, the deputy governor told Al Mada that 100,000 houses were damaged in
the province along with 80% of the hospitals in Ramadi, Fallujah and Qaim and
90% of the bridges were knocked out. Back in the summer, the Planning Ministry thought total
reconstruction in the country could stand at $100 billion. The authorities are
facing two dilemmas: one where is the money going to come from, and how are
they going to use it.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

There were recently two reports released in November 2017,
which proved that there were still many unaccounted for casualties from the
Mosul campaign. First, the United Nations released a study on the battle that
included over 1,000 dead and wounded not reported before. Than the New York
Times did an in depth study of Coalition air strikes during the Mosul
operation, which found that there were many more incidents of civilian deaths
than the Coalition acknowledged, and that it was using a flawed system to assess
whether it caused any casualties.

Saturday, November 18, 2017

The Iraqi forces
freed the last section of Iraqi territory held by the Islamic State. That
happened as Rawa in western Anbar was liberated in just a matter of hours.
There are still some lawless areas of the country where IS operates in, but
Rawa was the last actual city it controlled marking a major turning point.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

The greatly improved security environment continued for
another week in Iraq. From Nov 8-14, there were less than 100 incidents, but
the number of dead was very high due to another mass grave being discovered.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

As soon as Mosul was liberated in July 2017, the Ninewa
council moved against Governor Nufal Hamadi al-Akub. It took four months, but
Akub was eventually removed from office. Similar situations have played out in
other provinces that were once occupied by the Islamic State where politicians
have decided to settle their scores after liberation. The problem is that these
local officials should be restoring governance and rebuilding Ninewa, but
instead are vying for power.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

The Iraqi federal government recently asserted control over
Kirkuk province, which had been run by the Kurds since 2003. That included taking
several oil fields such as Bai Hassan and Avana that the Peshmerga seized in
2014 when they were abandoned by the North Oil Company in the face of the
advancing Islamic State. Prime Minister Haidar Abadi now wants to diversify the
outlets for the province’s petroleum, and has the Oil Ministry exploring several
options.

Monday, November 13, 2017

The Mosul campaign, which lasted from October 2016 to July
2017 was the largest and most important battle against the Islamic State in
Iraq. The fighting was some of the most intense the world had seen in decades,
and broke the back of the militants as a conventional force that held territory
in the country. The human toll was tremendous as well, and likely never to be
fully accounted for due to Iraqi government censorship on casualties. Based
upon daily media coverage from over 40 sources, along with human rights and
United Nations reports a rough total can be estimated.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com